Members

Members

The Powow River Poets began in Newburyport in the early 1990s as a company of like-minded poets bought together by founder Rhina Espaillat, meeting at each other’s homes to exchange poems and critiques and provide mutual support. The group derives its name from a local tributary of the Merrimack River.

Powow River Poets members have won seven of the annual Richard Wilbur competitions for book length poetry manuscripts, including in 2015. Powows have also won the New Criterion, Robert Penn Warren, and Robert Frost Book Awards twice each, and the T.S. Eliot Award. Notably, ten of the annual international Nemerov sonnet award competitions, which attract thousands of entrants each year, have been won by a Powow poet, including Powow members Midge Goldberg in 2016; Robert W. Crawford in 2006 and 2011; Stephen Scaer in 2008; A.M. Juster in 1995, 2000, and 2007; Deborah Warren in 2001; and Rhina P. Espaillat in 1998.

Members are also regular winners in the annual New England Poetry Club competitions. Most recently, Jean L. Kreiling won the NEPC 2016 Rosalie Boyle/Norma Farber Award, Robert W. Crawford won the 2015 and 2014 Rosalie Boyle/Norma Farber Awards, and Len Krisak and Midge Goldberg won Honorable Mentions.

Members have published numerous poetry books and chapbooks. A number of the Powow poets are also translators, including translations from Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Swedish, as well as from English into Spanish. Poems and articles by members appear regularly in a wide range of literary journals, e-zines and anthologies.